Bashara's mistress says she couldn't end relationship

Bob Bashara’s mistress frequently tried to end their relationship because of his constant lying but time and time couldn’t resist his aggressive pursuits, she testified Thursday.

Rachel Gillett and other witnesses also testified on the fourth day of Bashara’s preliminary examination for his wife’s murder about the couple’s alternative lifestyle — BDSM, bondage, domination, sadomasochism. Bashara was “Master Bob” and she was his slave, sometimes referred to as “Bella” and Bashara’s “Little Princess.”

“In the BDSM community, one partner is normally dominant and one submissive,” she said. “I’m extremely passive, and Bob is extremely dominant.”

Bashara told a second woman, Janet Leehmann of Oregon, who Bashara was pursuing for a third member of their relationship, that he and Gillett engaged in “breath play,” nearly every day and Gillett “loves it.”

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But during a weekend visit to Leehmann about 10 days before the murder, he choked Leehmann from behind, and she said she “passed out cold,” indicating she didn’t like it. She said she was no longer interested in a relationship.

The hearing in 36th District Court, held in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit, will determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed with a murder trial in Wayne County Circuit Court in the same building.

The building was shut down early Wednesday afternoon due to a power outage and was operating on a generator, with some of the floors closed.

Bashara, 55, is accused of murdering and conspiring to murder his wife, Jane, 56, a Mount Clemens native, in the garage of their Grosse Pointe Park home Jan 24, 2012. Her body was found the next day in her SUV parked in an east-side Detroit alley.

Joe Gentz, 49, formerly of St. Clair Shores, has testified that he strangled Jane Bashara under the threat of and promise of payment from Bashara. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving 17 to 28 years in prison, agreeing to testify against Bashara.

After a break from Gillett’s testimony Thursday morning, Judge Kenneth King admonished Bashara and Gillett for signaling to each other, both on Wednesday and Thursday.

“I witnessed some non-verbal communication between the defendant and the witness, putting his hand over his heart” on Wednesday, King said. “There will be no such thing tolerated. If I find it necessary, I will have Mr. Bashara removed from the courtroom.”

Bashara started to explain to the judge, “I have a skin rash on my chest,” when his attorney, Mark Procida, nodded and tapped Bashara’s arm.

While cross-examining Gillett, defense attorney Nancy Shell derided Gillett for her inability to end the relationship despite his many lies, such as saying his wife was dead and then they were separated, and claiming their divorce was final, as well as trying to pursue other women.

She complained that while she exposed him to her friends and family, he kept he shielded away from his family and friends.

“I’m too soft, too loving to be the other woman,” she told him.

But after each episode, he wooed her hard, sending her flowers, buying her lunch and promising he had a “plan” to spend the rest of his life with her.

Shell said, “You didn’t realize you were being strung along by Mr. Bashara?”

“Yes, I did,” Gillett answered.

Gillett read many emails, mostly filled with his promises and love declarations.

“I ask you for one more chance but I will not beg you,” Bashara wrote. “I want you always have. ... You know I love being with you. ... Do not let us go, I will not. I truly love you, Bob.”

After a breakup early in the relationship when she still resided in Dearborn Heights, he sat in a lawn chair and blocked her front door and talked loudly, she said.

She eventually moved to a Bashara-owned apartment on Mack Avenue that had a “dungeon” in the basement where they met twice a week, she said.

She later moved into her own apartment, and they planned to buy a house together.

Bashara told her in June 2011 that he got divorced in May but never produced proof.

She demanded to see the divorce papers four days before the murder.

That same weekend, she and Bashara went to a BDSM event and a paint store to get ready for their planned move into their new home on Kensington Street, which Bashara referred to as their “cottage.”

They closed on the purchase three days after the murder.

The day of the murder, Bashara met her for lunch at a Cass Avenue cafe near her secretarial job at Wayne State University in Detroit.

When he called the next day to tell her his wife was dead, “He sounded more irritated,” Gillett said.

He also told her he feared he would be blamed for the slaying.

She attended a candlelight vigil for Jane. She hugged Bashara.

Asked how long their relationship lasted, Gillett sighed, stared downward and said, “Three years, three months and three weeks.”

Also testifying was Leehmann, the third witness who said Bashara suffered from erectile dysfunction.

“I don’t know how to put this delicately but it doesn’t work,” she said.

While she was cooking in her kitchen and Bashara was playing with her dog in the living room, she heard him on phone, “I want this done, I want it done this weekend. What the f--- is wrong with you?”

He told her he was talking to a handyman about a job.

She indicated she was astounded when Bashara asked her if she knew someone who could “rough up” a handyman he was having problems with, and do the same to Gillett’s boss whom he said was giving her problems at work.

“I only know dental assistants,” she said, drawing laughter in the courtroom.

The limited physical evidence was also presented Thursday, showing Jane Bashara tried to fend off her attacker. Andrea Young, a DNA expert with the Michigan State Police Crime Lab in Northville, said Jane Bashara and Gentz’s DNA were found under one fingernail on her left hand, and blood under a second left-hand fingernail of which could not be excluded as hers and/or Gentz’s.

Gentz’s DNA also was found on the soul of one of the pair of boots that was found in the garage where prosecutors believe Jane Bashara was killed.

Prosecutors have alluded that a kick to Jane’s neck could have been the fatal blow.

The preliminary examination is expected to conclude Friday with four more witnesses.

About the Author

My beat is the courts of Macomb County and general assignment.
Read more of Jameson Cook's court coverage on his blog http://courthousedish.blogspot.com/ Reach the author at jamie.cook@macombdaily.com
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